Saatchi & Saatchi Australia partners with the National Art School to showcase emerging artists

Saatchi & Saatchi Australia has enlivened its flagship Sydney premises with three levels of painting, sculpture and photography, as part of a unique partnership with Australia’s National Art School.

Opening on Friday 28 March to select VIP guests, the Saatchi & Saatchi Show is set to bring together a diverse collection of works by thirteen National Art School graduates.

Says Michael Snelling, National Art School director: “At the heart of our partnership with Saatchi & Saatchi is a shared vision to nurture creativity and give emerging artists exposure to a broader audience.

“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Saatchi & Saatchi in 2014, and expect the student artwork will not only be a talking point in the office, but complement and extend the creativity generated by their staff on a daily basis.”

Saatchi & Saatchi lent their expertise to the School’s 2013 Graduate Exhibition, developing a ground breaking campaign that used Twitter and digital platforms to attract a record breaking 2,000 attendees and boosting artwork sales to the week-long exhibition.

In a city that is saturated with visual art events, Saatchi & Saatchi created a point of difference by capturing people’s reactions to the artwork with the tagline ‘How will you react’. This intriguing message was integrated across media, including television and radio commercials and 165 street flags in the CBD.

Says Michael Rebelo, Saatchi & Saatchi Australia CEO: “Saatchi & Saatchi and the National Art School have a great synergy: we both value artistic expression and are creatively brave. We are very excited to launch the Saatchi & Saatchi Show 2014 and to play a part in helping the School’s students realise their potential. I am sure the work will stimulate interest, interaction and debate by staff and clients alike.”

The thirteen recent graduates chosen for the exhibition are Eloise Barber-Cato, Emma Cooper, Hugo Fisher, Joanna Gambotto, Chloe Gunn, Jean Kim, Emma Kirby, Christoph Mauss, Kira Papenfuss, Luke Storrier, Hannah Toohey, Elena Tory-Henderson and Candice Towne.

Says Luke Storrier, 2013 Bachelor of Fine Art graduate: “I’m honoured to be part of this year’s Saatchi & Saatchi Show as it gives me the possibility of sharing my ideas with a broader audience.

“My work Port in a Storm (left) focuses on denatured materials; injecting flow and life back into those materials that have had the life sucked out of them. As a sculptor, material is everything and once you scratch the surface of possibility with a material it invites you to continue scratching.”

The Saatchi & Saatchi Show was curated by student Jodie Hill under the mentorship of NAS gallery manager Judith Blackall.

The art will be on display and available for purchase at Saatchi & Saatchi’s office at the Rocks during 2014.

(Picture 1: Hannah Toohey, Variations on a Nose (2013), plaster, pins, 240 x 85 cm. Photo: Peter Morgan, Picture 2: Luke Storrier, Port in a Storm (2013), plywood, 250 x 200 x 120 cm. Photo Peter Morgan.)